On the occasion of March 24 – International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims, Centre for Civic Education (CCE) urges the representatives of judicial and executive authorities to take everything what is in their power to shed the light on the fate of missing persons and supress the impunity by processing the ones who are responsible for severe violations of human rights and suffering of innocent population during the post-Yugoslav wars of nineties, and thus ensure their families the right to truth.

According to the latest information, after more than 20 years from war events in region, more than 9,000 persons are still missing, out of which even 62 persons are from Montenegro. Hence, the priority of countries of region, including Montenegro, should be the search for the locations with bodies of victims and their exhumation. That implies close cooperation of competent institutions with various actors, including the families of victims and NGOs. We remind that the Council of Europe Commissionaire for Human Rights has recently supported the establishment of RECOM and suggested to other states to support the establishment of efficient and independent national or regional bodies in charge of the establishment of truth, and that post-Yugoslav successor states should take the ownership of Initiative for RECOM. Initiative for RECOM claims that the integral part of cooperation should be the disclosure of locations of mass graves, exhumation, identification and handing over of remains to victims’ families, in order to acknowledge the minimal level of dignity of victims.

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Centre for Civic Education (CCE) received an outstanding number of applications from graduates who are interested to attend the programme of capacity building and working practice within the project “Knowledge and skills for jobs!”. The competition closed on 15 March 2017. Namely, after detailed technical review of documents, there were registered 364 eligible applications of university graduates.

When it comes to structure of applicants, the trend which was noted in the mid assessment of the process was continued to the great extent. In so, greatest level of interest for this form of training demonstrate young people from Central part of Montenegro – 68.13%, quarter of interested applicants was from Northern part (25.55%), while the unemployed persons from Southern part of Montenegro (6.32%) were least interested in the improvement of their competitiveness at the labour market.

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On the occasion of 15 March – International Day of action against police brutality – Centre for Civic Education (CCE) would like to indicate on the insufficient sanctioning of police officer performance, who act restrictively on the freedom of citizens and respect of human rights.

CCE has previously expressed its concern due to the abolition of those who have misused police authorities, which we were able to witness through the examples of police torture against the late Aleksandar Pejanović, beating of Mijo Martinović, and many other citizens who have attended the protests of opposition during 2015, as well as similar individual cases.

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On the occasion of 8 March, International Women’s Day, Centre for Civic Education (CCE) indicates that gender equality and full accomplishment of women’s rights in Montenegrin society are still far-fetched. In spite of the numerous legal solutions and institutions that established in line with European and international standards, status of women is still slowly changing, and they mainly remain out of the circle of political decision-makers, often exposed to violence, mobbing and various forms of discrimination on working posts, without the adequate protection and support.

Protests by group of women – mothers, who have been standing for days in front of the Parliament of Montenegro and fighting against the reduction of compensation – legally acquired for lifetime, which is yet another result of miscalculated and short-sighted political decision, best illustrate the position of women in Montenegrin society. Every aspect of story regarding the compensation for mothers with three or more children is a mirror image of misunderstanding of the role of women, their needs, rights and concept of gender equality.

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